Folding chair



P. H. PETERS.

FOLDING CHAIR.

APPLICATION FILED SEE-L23. 1921.

Patented July 25, 1922;

STATES PATENT OFFICEo PETER H. PETERS, OF DOWNERS GROVE, ILLINOIS.

' f. I FOLDING CHAIR.

ercer.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 25, 1922.

Application filed September 23, 1921. Serial No. 502,665.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, PETER H. PETERS, citizen of the United States, residing at Downers Grove, Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in :1 Folding Chair; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to whch it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to folding chairs and in its general objects aims to provide a simple and strong chair construction which will permit the chair to be folded substantially fiat and which will enable the folded chairs to interlock when superposed on one another so as to prevent the piled up chairs from slipping apart or tumbling over.

In making folding chairs it has long been customary to pivot the seat between the two risers which form the support for the back and which also constitute two of the legs of the chair. It has likewise been customary to pivot a second and shorter pair of legs to the first named or longer legs and to have the pivoted seat normally supported on the tips of these shorter legs when the chair is unfolded. In practice, the angle at which the shorter legs extends when unfolded requires their pivotal connections to the longer riser or leg of the chair to be spaced from the forward supported portion of the seat by a distance greater than that between the said pivotal connection and the rear edge of the seat when the chair is folded. Consequently, the shorter legs commonly protrude in front of the said riser members and in front of the seat when the chair is folded, thus forming projections which will not afiord a substantially flat support for a corresponding folded chair when the folded chairs are laid down and stacked upon one another. This makes it difficult to keep piles of stacked chairs in stable condition, and unless unusual precautions are taken for bracing such piles, the upper chairs are likely to slip off, or the entire stack may tumble over. In either case, the noise and confusion arising from such an upsetting of the stacked chairs is highly objectionable and particularly so if the chairs are used in assembly halls or are employed by undertakers at funerals. So

also, the projecting of the leg tips and the usual projecting of the seat both forwardly and rearwardly of the longer legs or riser members when the chairs are folded prevents their being leaned closely and firmly against one another if stacked in a substantially erect position, thus leading to similar annoying occurrences. It also interferes with the easy and compact packing of the chairs when they are to be shipped.

In certain of its aspects, my invention aims to overcome all of these objections to the folded chair constructions heretofore employed and for this purpose aims to provide chairs in which all of the constituent parts (excepting possibly the normally forward edge portion of the seat) will readily fold within the thickness of the main risers or longer legs of the chair; aims to provide the said main risers with means for interlocking them on adjacent chairs, and aims to rovide' chair back constructions which wil readily clear the said forward projecting of the front seat edges. Furthermore, my invention aims to provide simple and inexpensive means for limiting the opening movement of the two pairs of legs when the chair is unfolded and aims to arrange the said means so that the clothing of users of the chairs will not be apt to catch on the same.

More particularly, my invention aims to provide folding chairs in which the riser and leg portions are equipped on their fronts and backs with counterpart formations adapted to interengage on adjacent chairs to prevent relative lateral movement thereon; aims to provide novel means for maintaining the front of the seat at .a desirable height while emiploying cooperating sup porting legs of sufiiciently short length to permit of their being folded entirely between the main risers or longer legs of the chair; and aims to provide simple and inexpensive means for this last named purpose, and de' sirably to hold the said means in place by the hinge plates which connect the seat to the frame of the chair. It also aims to provide novel, inexpensive and efi'ective means for limiting the opening movement of the legs ,when the chair is unfolded. Still further and more detailed objects will appear from the following specification and from the accompanying drawings in which-- Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a folding chair embodying my invention. I

Fig. 2 is a rear elevation of the same.

Fig. 3 is a central and vertical transverse section taken through the same chair when the same is folded.

Fig. 4: is a side elevation of a stack of such chairs when folded and piled upon one another.

Fig. 5 is a central and longitudinal section taken through a shorter stack of similarly piled chairs.

Fig. 6 is an enlarged and fragmentary transverse section taken along the corre( spondingly numbered line in Fig. 5 and showing the interlocking of the legs of the superposed chairs.

Fig. 7 is an enlarged section through one of the chair legs and the link which limits the opening movement of that chair leg.

Fig. 8 is an enlarged transverse section through the seat of the chair showing an al ternative form of construction, namely one in which the hinge strap is so formed as to do its own spacing from the bottom of the chair.

Fig. 9 is an enlarged perspective view of one of the links which limit the opening movement of the chair legs.

In the embodiment of the drawings, the chair of my invention includes a pair of risers or rails 1 having their upper portions connected by cross bars 2 which form the back rest for the chair, and having their lower portions connected by a rung 3. Pivotally connected to the risers 1, desirably by a cross-bar 4-, is a pair of shorter legs 5, which shorter legs are likewise connected near their lower ends by a rung 6.

The space between the two risers 1 is also spanned by a pivot bar 8 to which the seat 9 is pivotally connected, the connection being desirably made by a pair of pivot straps 1O bolted to the seat. However, these pivot straps do not extend close to the bottom of the seat forwardly of the latter but diverge downwardly, and each of these straps is spaced at its forward end from the bottom of the seat by a wedge 11 which desirably is held in place by the same bolt 12 which secures the strap to the seat. This wedge 11 compensates for the otherwise unduly short reach of the portions of the shorter legs extending above the pivot bar 4, thus permitting these legs to be made so short as to clear the rear edge of the seat when the chair is folded. That is to say, I employ a seat which will have its rear edge fold entirely within the frame consisting of the longer risers 1 and the cross pieces connecting the latter, as shown for example in Fig. 3, and I cut the shorter legs to such a length that these can also be folded entirely within the same frame or below the normal rear edge of the seat.

In providing comfort both in the seat and back construction, the seat is desirably curved and may project somewhat forwardly of the said frame when the chair is folded, while the wedges 11 and the means for securing these to the seat may also project beyond the frame as shown in Fig. 4:. How ever, the open spaces between the cross pieces connecting the risers readily allow for such projections, so that these will not interfere with the stacking of the folded chairs on their backs in horizontal position as shown in Fig. 5.

To prevent the chairs when thus stacked from moving laterally, or sliding off one another, I desirably provide each of the risers and legs on its forward and rearward edges with similar and counterpart tongue and groove formations, and for the sake of appearance desirably provide tongue formation on the forward edge. Then when the folded chairs are placed close to each other, as in stacking the same after the manner of Figs. 4: to 6 inclusive, the forwardly directed tongue on each riser will interlock with the rearwardly directed groove formation on the riser of the superposed chair, and the corresponding tongue and groove formations on the short legs 5 will likewise interlock. Consequently, each chair has all four of its legs interlocked with the chair on which it is superposed, thereby effectively preventing relative lateral movement and maintaining every pile of folded chairs in a stable condition.

For limiting the opening movement of the chair, I desirably employ links 13 made of channel iron and each pivoted on a rivet 1a to the adjacent shorter leg at some distance below the cross-bar l. Then I provide a rivet 15 extending both through the longer leg through a longitudinal slot 16 in the back of the channel and having one head disposed within the channel so that the two webs of the channel will prevent clothing or the like from catching on the rivet head. With this link construction, the end of the slot acts as a stop engaging the shank of the rivet 15 to limit the opening movement of the legs, while the webs of the channel space the connected legs from each other sidewise of the chair.

However, while I have illustrated and described a folding chair embodying a number of highly desirable features, I do not wish to be limited to the combination of all of them. Nor do I wish to be limited to the particular details of construction and arrangement above disclosed, as these might be varied in many ways without departing from the spirit of my invention or from the appended claims. For example, instead of inserting a separate wedge piece between each of the pivot straps and the bottom of the seat, I may employ pivot straps 17 having their forward ends 18 bent to afford the desired spacing without requiring any edges, as shown in Fig. 8.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a folding chair, a pair of tall risers connected by cross-bars, a pair of shorter legs pivoted thereto and adapted to aline therewith when the chair is folded, a seat, pivot straps secured to the seat and diverging downwardly from the seat forwardly thereof, and wedges disposed respectively between the straps and the bottom of the seat.

2. In a folding chair, a pair of tall risers connected by cross-bars, a pair of-shorter legs pivoted thereto and adapted to aline therewith when the chair is folded, a seat, pivot straps secured to the seat and diverging downwardly from the seat forwardly thereof, wedges disposed respectively between the straps and the bottom of the seat, and means simultaneously securing each strap and the adjacent wedge to the seat.

3. In a folding chair, pivotally connected pairs of risers and legs, and means for limiting the relative opening movement thereof,

the said means comprising links each pivoted to one of the pair and having a slot engaging a fastening element secured to the other of the pair, each link being channel sectioned to afford webs spacing the adjacent riser and leg laterally of the chair and to house a head of the fastening element associated therewith.

4. Means for limiting the relative movement of folding chair legs about their pivotal interconnection, comprising a channelsectioned link having its back vertical and pivoted to one leg and having a longitudinal slot in its back, and a bolt or the like se cured to the other leg and extending through the said slot and having one of its heads housed by the channel formation of the link.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, September PETER H. PETERS. 

